


Smoke Heavy Lungs

by VeteranKlaus



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 08:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19849144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeteranKlaus/pseuds/VeteranKlaus
Summary: After completing a new, particularly hard and stressful case, Ellie finds Hardy outside indulging in old habits.





	Smoke Heavy Lungs

**Author's Note:**

> Smoking's not cool, kids, don't do it.
> 
> Then again, I like smoking!Hardy.

The last two months have been some of the worst of his life, Alec thinks. Not as bad as Sandbrook, nor as the Latimer case, but close enough as he's considered. 

A tourist couple had been murdered, and it had been Hell to track down the murderer. The family side of things had been horrific, and Alec is just bloody glad for it all to finally be done for. Not that he'd get rid of the images of their mutilated corpses any time soon. 

Everyone else had gone out to celebrate; down to the pub, no doubt. He had been invited, but he'd turned it down with the excuse that he needed to go see Daisy. That was a lie; she was staying at a friend's house for the night. He had checked in with her and he knew that she was safe, and so he was left to himself for the rest of the night. He had sent off the last reports and cleaned everything up, and he had even actually gone home instead of sulking out on the beach.

His kettle boils in the background, whistling coming through from the kitchen even to where he stands, out of his front door and by the edge of the river that cuts down by his house. It's a clear night, moon reflected in the water in front of him, and if not for Alec's absolute hatred for water, the noise of the waves gently lapping by his feet might have been relaxing. It's not even that cold for the time it is, and it would have been a lovely night to go the pub with everyone. He had even been making attempts to get closer to the officers, but he was simply too stressed.

Plus, he hadn't had a chance to smoke for the entire day, and despite his best efforts, he craved one more than anything at the moment. 

He had started smoking years back - technically as a teenager, when everyone seemed to be doing it. Then he had stopped for a while, and then picked it up again as a social thing. It had kicked off during the Sandbrook case and when he had suspected Tess of her affairs, and he had quit cold turkey shortly before coming to Broadchurch. He had craved it again during the Latimer case and the reopened Sandbrook case, but his heart had stopped him from doing it. 

He was not proud to say that during this latest case, he had succumbed and bought another packet. About a month in he had sought them out, and he had finished it within two and a half weeks. After a few days in which he said he was quitting for real, he had broken and bought another pack hardly more than a week ago; and the pack was already approaching three-quarters empty. He had managed to hide it from everyone - it had been tough with Daisy. He was sure she suspected it, but she hadn't called him out on it. It had been a slippery slope back into addiction, and with the stress of finishing off the case today and not having even two minutes to have a single one in, he had been eager to go home and satisfy his craving. 

He's on his second cigarette already, and he's just finished his first. With one hand on his hip, the other brings a fresh cigarette to his lips. He balances it between them with ease and pulls out a newly bought lighter, shields the cigarette from the breeze, and lights it, inhaling as it catches. The rush he gets is enough to push tension out of his shoulders and make him pleasantly light headed. He closes his eyes in relief, shoves his lighter inside his pocket, and then plucks the cigarette between his index and middle finger. 

Briefly, he wonders about Elie. She had called him out on being a past smoker, seemingly overjoyed by guessing correctly. At least, he thinks, that she didn't guess the extent to which he had smoked to. 

It's a disgusting habit, and he already hates himself for picking it up, but oh how it is an old comfort. 

He hears footsteps nearby, but doesn't look up. He doesn't expect them to come up to his house as they do, nor does he expect to hear his gate creak open.

"Hey, sir," Ellie says, her voice light and cheery. "Thought I'd give persuading you another chance - oh." She falls short, watching smoke tumble past his lips, his fingers tap ash from the smouldering tip of his cigarette. Alec spares her a glance, raising an eyebrow.

"What're you doing here, Miller?" He asks, voice croaky and rough, and he coughs to clear it.

"Well, I remembered that you mentioned how Ellie was going to Chloe's birthday party tonight," she states. "So you were bullshitting to get out of coming to the pub. Thought you were being a stubborn prick, so I came to get you to come to the pub and lighten up a bit. So, what's the deal?"

"Deal with what?" He asks, eyes narrowed at her. She gives him an unimpressed look at his attempt at playing dumb and he rolls his eyes. Instead, he brings the cigarette back to his lips and inhales heavily. Ellie points at him.

"That! Deal with that!" She exclaims, pointing at the cigarette. Alec shrugs innocently, not about to indulge her in his little addiction, and Ellie frowns at him. "Didn't you say that you used to be a smoker?" She asks, emphasis on the 'used to'. 

"No," replies Alec. " _You_ said that. I confirmed it." 

Ellie shakes her head slightly. When he makes to bring his cigarette back to his lips, Ellie surges forwards and snatches it from his fingers (surprisingly not burning herself on it.) 

" _Miller_ ," Alec groans, glaring at her. "What do you think you're doin'?"

"Saving your lungs." 

He glares at her, but doesn't move to take the cigarette back. He's not that desperate. He does watch as she drops it and crushes it beneath the toe of her boot. "Where's your packet?" She asks. Alec narrows his eyes at her.

"What?"

"Where's your packet?" She repeats. "Give it."

"Go back to the pub, Miller." Alec rolls his eyes and looks out across the dark river in front of them. With a sigh, the woman begins looking around his porch, staring suspiciously at his pockets, and then she finds his jacket hanging up by his front door and begins digging her hands in his pockets.

"Miller, leave it," Alec hisses, taking a few steps towards her. He'd just make himself look worse if he actually went out and tried to stop her, however, so he stays put, shoulders tense and arms crossed, a scowl on his face. Eventually, Ellie finds the new packet in one of his jacket pockets and pulls it out. She peers inside, then holds it up, open, to show off the fact he's almost finished it. 

"When did you get this?" She asks. "And how did you hide this? I thought you quit."

Alec makes a show of rolling his eyes at her. "I'm an adult, Miller. I can make my own bloody decisions." He holds his hand out expectantly. Ellie stands her ground, then she tips the shamefully few remaining cigarettes out into her hands. She crushes them and tears them open, tobacco spilling out, and then she throws the remains in the river which quickly sweeps them far away. 

"I paid for those," Alec hisses at her, and he can't help the way his heart quickens slightly with anxiety. 

"Yeah, well, I'm saving you from an early grave," Ellie replies. Alec snorts and gestures to the river.

"And killing the environment, huh?"

Ellie glares at him and reaches out to slap his arm. "I'm serious, Alec! What do you think _you_ _'re_ doing?" 

"None of your bloody business!" Alec retorts, looking away. 

"When d'you start again?"

With a dramatic sigh, Alec shrugs. "'bout a week ago."

"A week?" Repeats Ellie, eyebrows flying high. "You almost finished that entire packet in a week?"

"What's it to you? Go back to the pub, Miller."

Ellie shakes her head with infuriating resolve. Instead, she walks to the side and sits down on the step in front of his door, looking as if she expects him to join her. He doesn't. "Why d'you start?" She asks.

"We're not having a therapy session, Miller," Alec groans, turning around. 

"We're not. We're talking like adults. Or, I am."

"Shut up." Alec rolls his eyes. 

"When did you start?"

He doesn't reply for several long moments, but finally he heaves a heavy sigh. "About a month ago."

"So that's your second packet?" 

Alec nods. 

"Why? I thought you stopped."

"I did," Alec replies. 

"So why did you start again?" She asks, and her voice is ridiculously soft. It makes his own defence mechanisms raise and it makes him take several moments to relax. 

"The case," he groans. 

"It's stressful, yes, but you don't see me running to go smoke," she says. Alec glares at her.

"Easy to say that when you've never started before, Miller," he snaps back. He turns around, scrubbing a hand down his jaw, and hears Ellie shift awkwardly behind him. 

"I'm sorry," she says after a moment's pause, "I shouldn't have said that."

"Aye, you shouldn't have," he responds gruffly. "Just go to your pub, Miller."

For a moment, he thinks she will. She'll leave him be to make some old pot-noodle and sourly crave more nicotine than he should, and they'll act like none of this ever happened. He wishes that she would. 

Instead, she stands up and looks inside his house. "Just boiled the kettle?" She asks. Alec narrows his eyes at her.

"Yeah."

"You eaten today?" 

"What is it now, Miller?"

"I left just before they ordered food," she states with a shrug. Alec stares at her for several long moments, watching her smile innocently at him, and then he groans and steps around her to get inside. She eagerly follows him inside, leaving the door open for some air, and she begins rifling through his fridge and freezer while he busies himself with making two cups of tea for them.

He's not got much food in his house - he never does, and it was worse before Daisy came up. Nonetheless, Ellie finds some chicken nuggets which she throws them into the oven and sets them to cook, and then she takes the tea he offers her.

"I am sorry," she says, "about saying that."

"Whatever, Miller," Alec shrugs. "It doesn't matter."

"You know, nicotine patches and gum are a thing."

"I am aware."

"We'll get you some in the morning tomorrow," she decides.

"We?" Alec repeats, eyebrows raised. Ellie points innocently at the bottle of wine she dug out that he didn't even know he had - he was more of a whiskey person, if anything. 

"I left the pub," she states. "I'm having a drink, and so are you. You still need to lighten up a bit."

"So you're just trying to get me addicted to something else?" Alec snorts, sarcastic.

"So you admit you're addicted?" Ellie responds just as fast.

"Shut up."

Ellie grins at him, but there's no more cigarettes in the house. By tomorrow afternoon, there's plenty of gum and nicotine patches, however, and perhaps Alec can push through the cravings one last time. 


End file.
